Lake · Canada
Nueltin Lake
Nueltin Lake is a large, wild lake in northern Canada. It lies on the border between Nunavut and Manitoba, about 250 km west of Hudson Bay, and is dotted with many small islands.
Where is Nueltin Lake?
Countries on its shores: Canada.
Middle of the lake: 60.15° N, 99.76° W
The story behind it
The name Nueltin comes from the language of the Chipewyan people and means 'sleeping island lake'. It fits well, because many small islands lie in the water. A row of narrow straits splits the lake into a northern and a southern part. The lake is about 144 km long, and its winding shore is almost 3 900 km long. Most of it lies in Nunavut, but the southern end reaches into Manitoba. The Thlewiaza River flows through the lake and carries the water on towards Hudson Bay. In the winter of 1928–1929, Ilya Tolstoy, a grandson of the famous writer Leo Tolstoy, stayed here to film herds of caribou on their long journey. In 1947 the naturalist Francis Harper came to study caribou too, together with his assistant Farley Mowat. Today a small airport brings visitors to a fishing lodge on the Manitoba side.
Find it on the globe
Nueltin Lake is there as a small blue dot with its name, right on the water. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.
It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.
Questions children ask
How big is Nueltin Lake?
Nueltin Lake covers about 2 279 km². It is about 144 km long and full of small islands.
Which animals pass by Nueltin Lake?
Herds of caribou pass the lake on their long migrations. Filmmakers and scientists have come here to watch them.
Where does the water of Nueltin Lake go?
The Thlewiaza River flows through the lake. It carries the water on to Hudson Bay.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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